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Bouncing along the fairways, twirling a club flamboyantly after a good shot, this was the player JP Fitzgerald invoked when he delivered the pep talk that changed McIlroy's game on Thursday. He picks his moments, McIlroy's caddie, but he was correct in deciding his man needed to be snapped out of a funk.

The McIlroy that set off on Friday morning was still buzzing off the energy of that late first-round flourish. His first six holes were magnificent, the next six full of drama, maintained momentum and gutsy saves, and it was only in the last six that McIlroy allowed Birkdale to take a little back.

Despite this, he finished with a two-under-par 68, good enough at the time to be within four shots of the lead and tied 11th. That position grew stronger as the rain came late in the afternoon, forcing a brief suspension.

McIlroy carded a second-round score of 68 to go one-under for the tournament

Not that the morning groups had it easy. Divots spun across the course like tumbleweed, wind howled through sparse trees, and to hear Charl Schwartzel's tale of woe after shooting eight over par, was to understand what could have befallen McIlroy's championship had Fitzgerald indulged his crisis of confidence. Schwartzel was tournament joint leader and five under par after four holes.

Coming off the 18th he had dropped nine shots and was in grave danger of missing the cut.

'I've always found it very difficult in these conditions,' he wailed. 'As soon as I got into the crosswinds, it was very severe, really difficult. I couldn't even see it as a challenge, because it's basically just luck.

'When you start three-putting from 15 feet in the middle of the green, that's hard. Then you're hitting these shots and the ball is just doing whatever. It's not much fun.'

McIlroy is aiming to win his second Open Championship and has plenty of momentum

So McIlroy is to be lauded for hanging in there. He played sublimely to start, he fought bravely through 10, 11 and 12 and he ensured that hiccups at 13 and 15 didn't bleed into what remained of his round.

The carnage at 15 alone could have scrambled the mind of a lesser competitor. McIlroy went right from the tee, Schwartzel followed him and then some. The South African's position could not be saved. He had to take a drop and a penalty shot. McIlroy's second was salvageable but there was a complication. Between man and target was a large yellow sign, directing spectators to tee, green and various points of interest on the course.

McIlroy asked for relief. No, he was told, the sign is a movable object. So, can we move it then, McIlroy asked.

McIlroy hit 43 per cent of fairways during his second round in very testing conditions

At which point the unlikely figure of rules official John Paramor appeared with a spanner and proceeded to start work on the four large bolts attaching sign to plinth.

Eventually, it was taken down to loud cheers - almost crowning JP Fitzgerald in the process - and McIlroy could play.

These are always joyous moments when the action spills outside the spectator ropes, and no wonder.

What other sport brings players and crowd together like this? The ball might go into the stand at Old Trafford, but the players don't start clambering in after it to continue the game. Same with cricket. You can catch the ball, but you can't chuck it to a nearby fielder and attempt a double play run-out.

But when a golfer errs off the tee, in he wades, enveloped by his fanbase as McIlroy was. There are always wisecracks and warmth, and both sides seem to gain a little from it - despite the obvious irritation of a rotten shot. McIlroy fired out into a bunker, popped out from there on to the fairway, came up short of the green, settled for bogey.

McIlroy appeared relaxed during his second round and played like a man at ease

Who knows what happened to Schwartzel? By then he was too far gone to care; as were we. Yet from chaos, McIlroy recovered.

He got a flyer with his second shot on the 16th, meaning he needed to save par, but he was close to an eagle on the par-five 17th - slightly through the green in two and just missing with a chip.

Noticeably, his playing partners - including the mighty Dustin Johnson - chose to lay up on that hole. McIlroy was the only one of the trio who targeted the green with his second shot.

Maybe he should have a version of Fitzgerald's words on Thursday - 'You're Rory McIlroy, what the f*** are you doing?' - turned into a finite memento that can serve as inspiration during moments of adversity.

When he plays with the confidence he exuded for much of Friday, there is still no-one quite like him.

At the 15th hole a post had to be moved so that McIlroy could play a shot - he bogeyed that hole

McIlroy is a decent chap who helps look for lost balls that are not his own, but one imagines there was a certain satisfaction in blowing away rivals of the quality of Johnson and Schwartzel, as he did on Friday.

Even at the time when Schwartzel led him by four shots, there was no doubt who was in better nick. Every hole was a birdie opportunity for McIlroy at the time.

He didn't take them all, obviously, as this is links golf and it was blowing a gale and awkward, but his momentum was there from the previous night.

He played Birkdale's first six holes in eight shots fewer than he did on Thursday.

The sixth was perhaps the high water mark. McIlroy was in position A, always. Heart of the fairway, heart of the green, birdie putt.

The world No 4 always draws a large following and that was the same case on Friday

It took him to two under par for the tournament, three under for the day, and marked his first appearance on the Open leaderboard's top 10.

At the same hole on Thursday, he had been 10 shots off the lead; now the gap was three.

There will be those wishing they had taken some of the best price 399-1, available when McIlroy hit rock bottom; it was certainly more generous than his opening 7-1 on Saturday morning.

'When you see a shot like the one I hit into six, that does give you a lot of confidence,' McIlroy said.

'The long iron I hit into the 17th, too. I guess it's almost like a validation, that this is really good, you're fighting for it and you're mentally where you need to be.

McIlroy says he is mentally where he wants to be and that puts him in a very strong place

'I set myself a target of being in a better position today than I was yesterday. I wanted to be at least level par and I've been able to achieve that goal. This is definitely a round that gets me back into the championship.

'I hit some quality shots out there. So to be in after two days and under par for this championship after the way I started... I'm ecstatic with that.'

So he should be. This is a man who now very much knows what the f*** he is doing. After all, he's Rory f***ing McIlroy.